Why does every analysis of electric vs ICE efficiency include an exhaustive analysis of the "well-to-wheel" cycle for electric, but no such analysis for gasoline?
Let's do apples to apples. An electric vehicle's "wall plug" efficiency is 85-90%. An ICE's "pump" efficiency is 20%.
You've exhaustively documented that the efficiency of electric is closer to 40% going back to the power plant. What about gasoline?
Transporting refined fuel to the point of sale (highly variable)
Refining (refineries consume vast quantities of electricity and/or burn refining byproducts for energy)
Transporting crude oil to the refinery (highly variable, but with ~50% of US petroleum ebing imported, figure supertanker numbers for 1 gallon out of 2)
The only thing missing from your 43% number for power plants is extraction expenses for fossil-fuel burning plants. The 43% number will decline, but I expect it won't drop by much given the shorter distance that most power plant fuel travels and the use of railroads for bulk material transportation. I suspect that the average well-to-wheel efficiency of gasoline will drop considerably from the 20% "pump" efficiency of the ICE.
As others have pointed out, the important thing about electric is that it would free us from dependency on a particular fuel for transportation, push energy generation to fewer points of greater efficiency/pollution control, and greatly enhance the point-efficiency of our vehicle fleet.
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Let's do apples to apples. An electric vehicle's "wall plug" efficiency is 85-90%. An ICE's "pump" efficiency is 20%.
You've exhaustively documented that the efficiency of electric is closer to 40% going back to the power plant. What about gasoline?
- Transporting refined fuel to the point of sale (highly variable)
- Refining (refineries consume vast quantities of electricity and/or burn refining byproducts for energy)
- Transporting crude oil to the refinery (highly variable, but with ~50% of US petroleum ebing imported, figure supertanker numbers for 1 gallon out of 2)
The only thing missing from your 43% number for power plants is extraction expenses for fossil-fuel burning plants. The 43% number will decline, but I expect it won't drop by much given the shorter distance that most power plant fuel travels and the use of railroads for bulk material transportation. I suspect that the average well-to-wheel efficiency of gasoline will drop considerably from the 20% "pump" efficiency of the ICE.As others have pointed out, the important thing about electric is that it would free us from dependency on a particular fuel for transportation, push energy generation to fewer points of greater efficiency/pollution control, and greatly enhance the point-efficiency of our vehicle fleet.